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Aristotle's Four Causes illustrated for a table: material (wood), formal (structure), efficient (carpentry), final (dining).. The four causes or four explanations are, in Aristotelian thought, categories of questions that explain "the why's" of something that exists or changes in nature.
Aristotle takes note of what we now call conservation of matter. 4. Nature as artist and the human artist as imitator of nature 5. Three main modes of accidental change: change of place, change of quality, change of quantity 6. Aristotle's doctrine of the four causes: efficient, material, formal, and final. Physics, II.3-9
In chapter 3, Aristotle presents his theory of the four causes (material, efficient, formal, and final [4]). Material cause explains what something is made of (for example, the wood of a house), formal cause explains the form which a thing follows to become that thing (the plans of an architect to build a house), efficient cause is the actual ...
Book I (715a – 731b) Chapter 1 begins with Aristotle claiming to have already addressed the parts of animals, referencing the author's work of the same name. While this and possibly his other biological works, have addressed three of the four causes pertaining to animals, the final, formal, and material, the efficient cause has yet to be ...
The Liber de Causis ("Book of Causes") is a philosophical work composed in Arabic in the 9th century. It was once attributed to Aristotle and became popular in West during the Middle Ages , after it was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona between 1167 and 1187. [ 1 ]
Simplicius argues that the first unmoved mover is a cause not only in the sense of being a final cause—which everyone in his day, as in ours, would accept—but also in the sense of being an efficient cause (1360. 24ff.), and his master Ammonius wrote a whole book defending the thesis (ibid. 1363. 8–10).
While actuality is linked by Aristotle to his concept of a formal cause, potentiality (or potency) on the other hand, is linked by Aristotle to his concepts of hylomorphic matter and material cause. Aristotle wrote for example that "matter exists potentially, because it may attain to the form; but when it exists actually, it is then in the form ...
Aristotle recognized four kinds of causes, and where applicable, the most important of them is the "final cause". The final cause was the aim, goal, or purpose of some natural process or man-made thing. Until the Scientific Revolution, it was very natural to see such aims, such as a child's growth, for example, leading to a mature adult.